More transport & storage companies are pouring money into AI – but where is that investment going?
The home delivery expert Parcelhero says the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by UK transport & storage companies has mushroomed in the first quarter of 2026. There has been an 11 percentage point increase in the number of companies in the sector using AI in their business and that number is set to grow in the next few months.
An Office for National Statistics (ONS) Business Insights survey – held during March and released this month – questioned transportation & storage sector businesses (the category which includes logistics, parcels, haulage and warehousing employers) about their current and planned use of AI. The answers reveal a rapid transformation in how the sector regards the technology, says Parcelhero.
Parcelhero’s head of consumer research, David Jinks MILT, says: ‘The number of transport & storage firms now reporting they are making use of AI is still surprisingly small – 72.9% admit they are not yet using it. However, there has been a sharp jump in uptake since last December, when a frankly shocking 83.9% of transport & storage firms said they weren’t using the technology. In other words, 27.1% of companies in the sector are now using AI, an increase of 11 percentage points.
‘Incidentally, that 72.9% of transport & storage sector firms not yet using AI is exactly the same as the number of manufacturing sector companies who haven’t yet adopted the technology, and only slightly more than the 67.7% of retailers yet to take the plunge. That means that transport & storage sector firms are not lagging notably behind equivalent sectors in their uptake of AI.
‘The data gives a fascinating insight into the areas transport & storage businesses are focusing their AI use on, what impact they think it will have on their business, and where they see their AI investment focusing in the future.
‘29.8% of those transport & storage sector companies who have adopted AI say they are using it to improve business operations, 15.7% are using it to provide or personalise products or services and 10.2% to explore new markets.
‘Of course, adopting AI has an impact on businesses in terms of training and work practices. 28.5% of firms in the sector are training or retraining their existing staff in the use of AI. Contrary to recent headlines from some industry sectors, it does not look as if the increased use of AI in the transport & storage industry will lead to a reduced headcount. In all, 31.3% of companies now adopting AI said there would be no change in workforce numbers and the number of companies reporting that it would definitely reduce their headcount was so small it did not register in the figures.
‘Predictably, the roles transport & storage companies said have been most impacted are data analysis (16.4%), admin (11.3%) and creative/design roles (11%).
‘Whether to develop AI in-house or outsource/use “off the peg” AI solutions is a question many companies have been considering. 12.4% of transport & storage businesses that have already adopted AI say that they have developed AI programmes in-house while 13.3% have purchased external software or ready-to-use solutions and 12.6% are using free software.
‘Many more transport & storage sector companies are planning to adopt AI technologies in the next three months. 20.6% plan to use it to improve their business operations, 12% plan to adopt it to develop a new product or service and 10.3% to provide products or services for their customers.
‘However, a number of companies in the sector still reported reservations about the new technology. Of those already using it, 11.8% are concerned about the level of adequate business knowledge surrounding AI within their organisation, 11.5% about its ease of use and 5.4% about its affordability.
‘For those companies who have not yet adopted AI, 4.9% said cost was the main reason they have not yet taken the plunge, while 3.6% said they had difficulty identifying a business use case.